Government Accountability Office

Medicaid plagued with wasteful spending

By Jonathan Ingram
07/16/2013
The Medicaid welfare program has long been plagued with wasteful spending. The U.S. Government Accountability Office designates Medicaid as a high-risk program, largely because it is “particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments” and has inadequate oversight to prevent wasteful spending. Indeed, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, reports an improper...

Things you think are treats but really are tricks

10/27/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson This time of year, children go door-to-door dressed in costumes to ask their neighbors for treats. Throughout the year, governments at the federal, state and local level provide services and programs that many look upon as treats. But considering the cost and inefficiency of some of these programs and services, are these...

What Does the Post Office Do in an Economic Downturn? Raise Prices!

09/27/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Mail volume keeps dropping year after year, and yet the United State Postal Service would like to raise the price of a stamp from 44 cents to 46 cents. Why is the postal service losing money ($3.5 billion last quarter and $238 billion over the next decade) while private firms like UPS and...

Cuts and Necessary Cuts

09/21/2010
by Kate Piercy In the chart below, Mercatus Center Research Fellow Matt Mitchell compares the actual decline in states’ spending from 2009 to 2010 (in blue) and the sustained cuts in state and local spending necessary to close the gap between spending and revenues over the next 50 years, known as the 50-year fiscal gap (in...